A-level Results Day

Thousands of students across Birmingham have been picking up their A-Level results this morning. (Thurs 16th August 2012)

Thousands of students across The West Midlands have been picking up their A-Level results this morning. (Thurs 16th August 2012)

The proportion of students scoring at least an A grade in England, Wales and Northern Ireland has fallen for the first time in two decades.

It comes in the first year of dramatic fee rises that could see some paying up to 9 thousand pounds a year for their education.

There are reports that firms are seeing a surge in demand among A-level students for places on school-leaver training programmes.

However, demand for degree courses is still strong and there is expected to be a massive scramble for places in clearing as many universities say there will be no spare places this year. Around 50 thousand students found places through clearing last year.

So far this year, there have been more than 618,000 applications for about half a million places on degree courses, despite the rise in tuition fees.